boatman

I've had both and much prefer the lugs. The felt is down right dangerous at times as it provides no traction outside of the water. And if there is snow on the ground it just builds up and forms big ice cubes under your feet. Mind you, I use mine for work so I'm in and out of the water a lot.

Many people suggest a kicker of at least 10% the max rating of the boat. My boat is rated for 28 hp and a 3 hp is just big enough so I'd say its a fair estimate.

The problem is that there are so many variables that must be estimated in order to determine how much water to hold back or release. Since its impossible to know or measure exactly how much precipitation will fall or when it will come it is pretty much impossible to maintain waterlevels at the perfect level. Its much like weather forecasting. Even with 200 years of serious research and technology its still anyones guess. Response times are as fast as they can be if you consider that there are people watching the waterlevels and weather every day and balancing that information against all the other important variables such as watershed landuse, recreational needs, legal and illegal water taking, ecological and biological concerns and recalculating how much water to hold/release everyday. And as soon as a large discharge event (rain or melt water) is expected workers rush out and take physical measurements, which I might add is often dangerous work. At this point only better water monitoring technology will speed use flood forecasting. Also, Belwood is not truly a lake, but a riverine reservoir. There is a certain amount of water that must be discharged everyday to meets all the other needs of the river system and its users. Maintaining lake water levels for recreation is only the smallest aspect of this and in my opinion the least important. You can't compare water levels in a reservoir to other natural lakes. Its apples to oranges.

I'm in the same position as you, Cliff. I'm considering a step up to a mid priced sonar. My Humminbird is a cheap PiranhaMax 20. I bought it for finding structure, but now that I'm also fishing deeper waters for whitefish/lake trout and running and exploring new waters I find it grossly under performing. It loses bottom tracking if I go much over 15 kmh (less than half throttle). My buddies Humminbird does the same thing. I've been looking at the Lowrance x96 and the Eagle.

You can't avoid ethanol in Ontario. All gas is to be 10% ethanol, now. Your motor doesn't want Supreme either. Use either 87 octane with fuel stabiliser (like you should anyway) or use mid grade fuel (89 octane) with stabiliser. As always, try not to store fuel for long periods of time.

There are lots of short shaft motors in that size. Probably more SS than LS in that hp range. You shouldn't have a problem getting something.

I guess I'm in the minority. I consider Musky and panfish outside the realm of one rod. To me a med-heavy is too heavy a rod unless you are throwing heavy baits, working heavy cover or fighting huge fish. I perfer a medium action 6.5-7' rod matched to a 1500-2500 reel. It think this is probably the most common "all purpose" set-up. It really depends on your target species. If you fish mostly medium to large species then get a bigger outfit and conversely if you fish mostly medium to small fish.

Well you've already bought the new coil by now so all I'll add is to make sure you clean all the contact points VERY well when you install the new one. Those coils don't usually fail. The problem is usually caused by bad contacts due to corrosion. Good Luck

Is it electric start? Why is there a solenoid? Disconnect the kill switch and see if you get spark. Then check the entire plug boot and wire for cracks or damage. If nothing visible, then disconnect and check for continuity. Clean all the grounding points and make sure everything is making good contact.

Got out for a day of fishing on a small lake south of Minden. Ice conditions were fair with about 4" of solid cover under 12" of snow. Near shore areas were soupy due to water over the ice. The ice is still a thin so be cautious. We thoroughly checked the ice with our chisel as we crossed the lake. We only spent three hours on the ice and moved a couple times. Fishing was good. Lots of short strikes and soft taps. We managed 3 nice rainbows and a couple small perch. Two of the rainbows weighed about 1 lbs and the other was about 2.5lbs. Fish were caught in 15 FOW near bottom. Belly contents showed the fish were eating invertebrates off bottom.

I'm not a connoisseur like some here, but I enjoy a little Scotch. One thing I can tell you is that you can't pick a Scotch solely by its name. They can be very different. Personally, I like the mellow tasting Scotches (this is where I show my lack of Scotch knowledge). For me the general rule is the lighter the better. The dark coloured Scotches have too much bite for my liking. Currently, I have a bottle of single malt 12 year old Glen Livet in my cupboard. Its not too expensive, but good just the same. I have not had anything by Johnny Walker or Glen Fiddich, yet, that I liked. Of course, I've only sampled fewer than a dozen different single malts.

lol - I grew up south of Westport and I can tell you the best time to catch spring bullheads is at night. The town can't regulate fishing (that I know of), but they can regulate land use and that is essentially what they are doing. Pack of idiots.

I'm not too familiar with Mercs, but the thermostat is normally located behind a small cover on top of the water jacket. The usual location is circled in the following photo. And yes you need a thermostat. Your motor was designed to run with it. Without it it will be rough running and less efficient. http://www.myfishingpictures.com/showphoto...t//ppuser/11005

Just make sure you don't allow any of the cleaners to run down the shaft and contact the rubber driveshaft seal. Remove the water pump and housing and wrap a rag or something around it before you start.

Ditto to what Fisherman said. Buy the factory manual for your motor and get started. Also, add a little grease to the splines of the driveshaft. Replace any o-rings and seals that may be in there as well.

Impellers wear out all the time. They have since they started using rubber ones back in the 1940's or so. Some Johnson/Evinrude impellers have been in use since the 1950's. Even my old shop manuals from the 50's say to replace them occassionally. Impellers fail whether the motor is old or new. Its just good luck if they don't after several years. The rubber becomes brittle and breaks, which clogs passages and causes overheating. I think the reason people didn't hear about it as much in the past is because the world was smaller before the internet. Now we have access to millions of people and their stories. There is something to what Fisherman says, though. An impeller that sits for long periods of inactivity is more likely to fail than one that is frequently used. Since the impeller is offset in its housing some of its fins sit fully extended while others are compressed. When the impeller sits for long periods it tends to dry out become hard and hold its shape. When you start the motor up it spins the hardened blades and the ones that are fully extended break or crack when they reach the compession area of the housing while the compressed fins don't expand. The impeller blades may not break off, but this condition results in a lack of cooling water being pushed up to the powerhead and causes overheating.

The official answer ranges by manufacturer and marine tech, but 5 years is generally considered the maximum acceptable time frame. Anything longer is asking for trouble. The impeller is part of your routine maintenance and should be serviced. I would replace yours before next season. $30 and an hour of your time is cheap insurance considering the cost to replace your motor.

Don't bother with the fogging oil if you are storing indoors. If you plan to use it next year then just run fuel stabiliser in the gas mixed to the "storage" ratio on the bottle and change the lower unit oil. If its going down for a long nap (2 years or more) then drain the carb and fog the engine.

You won't see an appreciable difference and overpowering your boat can be dangerous.

No problem at all.

With a good floor about $4500. If it runs ok and is in reasonable shape I'd buy it. $2000 is a steal. You can easily turn this boat over a profit if you find you don't like it. 30 hp on that boat is definately not underpowered. I have a 30 hp on my heavy full floor 14.5' tiller and it jumps up on plane and runs at 43 kmh/26 mph WOT. If you suspect there is something fishy then call the boat licence number in to the authorities and find out if its been reported stolen.

4 stroke technology is definately here to stay. Its been around as long as we've had outboards. Its only really been the last 20-30 years that the technology has become viable. However, to say that a 4 stroke outboard will outlive a 2 stroke is a bit of an overstatement. Only time will tell. There are outboards still in service that are approaching 100 years old. I have several from the 1950's that run like new and have never been rebuilt. You may prefer 4 stroke, but it hasn't proven to be superior, yet. If it was then all outboards of all hp ranges would be 4 stroke and we wouldn't question it. I certainly don't mind 4 strokes. In fact, I was saddened to hear that BRP is letting the Johnson (4 stroke) line of outboards die. If I was to buy a new 4 stroke outboard I'd get a Yamaha or a Honda even if Johnson was still building them - actually Suzuki was building them. Mercury's will all be Tohatsu's (probably) soon enough. Also, snow machines and outboards are too different to be compared. Snow machines just don't hold up like outboards.

2 Tone, I agree that video is crap. Complete crap. Its a marketing tool. Your comments suggest that the ETec is just a piece of Ficht junk and does not make good on any of its claims, which is simply not true. But I'm not here to defend them. I just don't like misinformation. There has been enough objective testing to support that the ETec is more fuel efficient and has fewer emmissions than most outboards. Evinrude would be my choice, however I also stated that any of the outboards mentioned would be fine. Also Yamaha and Mercury are going their separate ways. I'm not sure if any 2008 Mercury's are using Yamaha parts.

"The E tec is a glorified Ficht engine fellas the one that bankrupted OMC ,it has lil or no more power than its 4 stroke competition of the same size,dont be fooled by the hype " - That's crap. They are all good motors. You see more Mercury's now because Brunswick Marine owns everything (not really but it seems like it) and they only want to put their motors (Mercury) on their boats. There is no "most reliable" outboard. Any of the motors you mentioned are fine. Personally I'd buy an ETec. Price + economy + power/weight ratio = the winner. JMO

IMO - you can't top live bait. Would you rather eat a fish or a piece of plastic that looks like a fish? Like someone said earlier, its all about presentation. No fish in history ever said "I think I'm hungry for a piece of painted plastic covered in hooks", yet, if you present it properly they will try to eat it everytime. If you are only going to be still fishing then use live bait. If you are jigging off bottom then try live bait or soft plastics. However, if you get the opportunity to do some casting that's when I'd switch to artificials.